Techno Tragedy: Domestic Swine

Artist: Ben Rodkin

Project Description:
"In the spirit of real human tragedy, pig's heads, encased in prismatic blocks of ice, endure an endless approach to their ultimate demise; the same end awaiting all of human existence: anticlimax. Their movements are imperceptively slow; they ostensibly do nothing save gaze across at one another, as the ice that surrounds them melts away into a slick crimson pool. This same longing is endured also by the audience, until several hours later, when the heads meet finally at the center of the space, engaged in a gentle kiss.

The heads of two adult domestic swine are encased in 1 cu.ft. blocks of ice and then fitted through their centers with eyes screws, and lengths of steel tubing through which are run steel cables. Two DC motors are wired into the Teleo unit and then into MAX/MSP where a relay object precisely controls the speed at which the heads travel. The motors draw the objects toward one another by pulling at the cable. They are cross-thread and dragged across polished linoleum, requiring several hours to travel the designated stretch of about twelve feet. The same output function also controls, internally, the cycling of a single musical note, which is audible as a subdued digital scream, issued with each incremental movement." - Ben Rodkin

System:
Teleo Multi IO Module controlling two DC motors using the PWM outputs, Max/MSP

Testimonial:
"In proving to be a smart and accessible interface between the digital world, and the world of flesh and bone, the Teleo systems truly do allow someone to first think it, and then to confidently build it...whatever it may be" - Ben Rodkin

The ice is melting as the pig heads draw closer to one another.

Side view of pig heads in ice.

Close up of pig snout and mechanism.